I know this has been chatted about sporadically in various threads in the past, but while I love watching my beloved Bobcats from the comforts of my own couch, I am getting a little frustrated with these mid week games.....I CAN'T GO....I have to work!!! (and yes that was yelling)

I did go to the Temple game, and since it was a "special" event in my mind, I took a day and a half off work and got a hotel in Athens and my wife, daughter and I made the trip and had a blast.  Dropped some cash in doing so.

I loved it.......AS A ONE TIME/ONCE A SEASON THING!!!! (yelling here too)

Does anyone else here see a problem with having the last 4 games during the week????  I do.  I hate it!!!

I know as a smaller atheletic program its nice to get the national exposure on the Mothershp ESPN, but as a fan and alumni outside of Athens (which I am guessing a majority of Alumni are), I cant get to the games from Dayton 2 1/2 hours away.  If we had games more traditionally on Saturday I would have made all but maybe 1 or 2 games this year.  {Hell, if the upcoming Bowling Green game was on a Saturday I would make the drive up I-75, but since its a Wednesday, I cant even do that!!!}

If I had a say, and I dont because I am no where near smart enough, we wouldnt have more than 1 maybe 2 mid week games a year...enough to get some spotlight on the program, but also keep the priority  focused on the on-campus atmosphere of gameday Saturday's with weekend games.

It is all about trade - offs. This is a fact of life.
With budgets being squeezed the conference has figured out a way to add revenue.
I live in RI and I don't get much of a chance to attend games so TV scheduling is important.

GO BOBCATS

The MAC has spoken. Being on tv is more important than having anyone in the stadium. Apparently kids want to play football in a vacuum as long as they are on tv. Who cares about football atmosphere when we get to split 1 million dollars among 13 teams.

but with the advent of the miraculous Internet, getting on ESPN isnt the only way for exposure,

as we have seen with the "old school" Saturday games this year, the MAC website and other websites can stream the games for the out-of-area alumni.....

but I do realize none of these gives us the "almight dollar" like ESPN does, still doesnt mean I like it, especially when we get relegated to the third and even fourth tier analyst crew on ESPN.

Listening to that game on ESPNU last night was like listening to an "audition" broadcast for a college journalism student, and thats probably an insult to OUr journalism majors.

The internet works for fans of either school, folks who are seeking out that particular game, but there is 0 chance that someone will casually find the game (and thus get OHIO the exposure and advertising) while flipping through the net as they would flipping through the cable line-up.

Yes that is the question. Where is the cable industry going long term with college football broadcast? I will only say as much as the midweek contract was a huge advance for MAC fans getting to see their teams the rise of quality internet streaming from ESPN3 and the conference website is a huge boon. A dedicated fan could pretty much watch the Bobcats every week without leaving their home. I would say 90% of the population is internet literate but there is a large segment not comfortable with accessing TV content online yet.  

And that Ohio has been on ESPN a lot over the last 5 years is building a perception among new generation of college football fans who OHIO is. There are a lot of people in this country that tune into anything played on ESPN. It places the MAC on a tier above the conferences who are not playing on ESPN regularly like Conference USA to the majority of the public because they don't know the MAC is taking less TV money to get the exposure.

While a great time was had by all who attended or watched on tv, the 1.3 million was an anomaly.  Had the NBA been in session, this would have been an ESPN2 game.  I'm just not sure that $769,230.76 (assuming the conference doesn't take a share) is worth no home Saturday games after October 15th. 

For those who are against mid-week games think of it this way.  We are now more attractive to recruits who can now watch us play, as well as for those Nebraska and Florida boys whose families have a good chance of catching almost every game on TV.  The TV aspect I would gather is huge in our recruiting of out of state athletes, everything is a trade off though.

I prefer Saturday games. However, November Saturday games in the MAC are much different than September and October. I have been to many cold Saturday November Bobcat games in the past where last nights CMU crowd would have been a huge improvement. I am not so sure November Saturday MAC games draw any better than week night games. September and October yes...but we are talking November when half of the teams are only playing for pride. I like the week night November games and think its great for the league. The Bobcats could have six straight on National TV to end this season. Big advantage compared to WAC and Conference USA.   

Let's say the Temple game is played on a Saturday November 6th in typical 50 degree cloudy weather at 2pm. Late season game with no pop in attendance from homecoming, parents weekend or band day. No ESPN pop for student incentive to attend. Ohio at best nets 2,000 additional paying customers and factoring in concessions-parking revenue could be making 50,000 additional dollars on a Saturday game. Its not like we are talking about having 39,000 down at the football stadium at 50 dollars a ticket vs.17,000 during midweek here. Its more like 19,000 compared to 17,500 midweek. The Temple and NIU games though a couple years back played on Saturdays only drew 15,000 so I'm not sure you can conclude attendance would be better for November Saturdays much less claim a major loss in home revenue during weeknights. Again use numbers here, not feelings or thoughts or a comparison with a program drawing 60,000 that dwarfs us.

$50,000 x2 games=$100,00= more than we're getting now.
Plus as mentioned before by others-how many season tickets do we lose because people know they can't make mid-week games?
I've noted before that the local businesses are losing out by not having weekend games with more fans in town.  Not that we should be interested in helping those businesses who can help us with their support.

It isn't even 19k vs 17.5k -- in fact, I'm not even sure there's a clear increase in attendance to having Saturday games in November.  Here are the relevant raw numbers I pulled from the last five years.

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2011 - vs. Temple (Wednesday, Nov. 2) - 17,490 - ESPN [Ohio 6-3, 3-2]

2010 - vs. Louisiana (Saturday, Oct. 30) - 15,255 [Ohio 6-3, 4-1]
2010 - vs. Buffalo (Thursday, Nov. 4) - 15,112 - ESPNU [Ohio 7-3, 5-1]

2009 - vs. NIU (Saturday, Nov. 21) - 14,756 [Ohio 8-3, 6-1]
2009 - vs. Temple (Friday, Nov. 27) - 14,135 - ESPNU [Ohio 9-3, 7-1] -- Students removed from dorms earlier in the week

2008 - vs. Buffalo (Tuesday, Oct. 28) - 10,042 - ESPNU [Ohio 2-7, 1-4] -- Keep in mind, it was near-freezing, windy, and actually sleeted during the game
2008 - vs. Bowling Green (Saturday, Nov. 8) - 15,018 [Ohio 2-8, 1-5] -- This was PARENTS WEEKEND
2008 - vs. Akron (Saturday, Nov. 22) - 13,114 [Ohio 3-8, 2-5] -- Students out of dorms

2007 - vs. Temple (Friday, Nov. 2) - 15,632 [Ohio 5-5, 3-3]
2007 - vs. Miami (Saturday, Nov. 24) - 11,438 - GTN [Ohio 6-6, 4-4] -- No students in dorms

2006 - vs. Akron (Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006) - 15,631 - ESPNU [Ohio 8-3, 6-1]

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I personally love the schedule this November, but I'm too far away at the moment to drive into a game, and my days off are Wednesday and Thursday.